Counter.



F. w. FULLERTON.

v COUNTER.

AFPLICATION FILED MAR. 24, I915- Paten PM; Dec. 4, 1917.

filler-ton.

dling.

1 FREDERICK w. FULLERTON, or ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

COUNTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 24, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK WV. FULLER- tron, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Counters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in counters, and more particularly to that class in which newspapers or other articles are arranged at the delivery end of a conveyer in marked groups, each group containing apredetermined number of papers being packed in convenient form for eflicient han- My,inv'ention is applicable to that class of conveyers set forth in my companion application, Serial Number 628,598, filed May 20, 1911, although it can be employed In connection with other kinds of conveyers. 20 Th e primary objects of my invention are,

To deliver the papers in the delivery room of a printing establishment, such as a newspaper building, in smooth condition in the least possible time after the presses start.

0 count the papers automatically in as sorted groups of any predetermined number desired.

To prevent smutting and tearing of papers while they are being conveyed and counted.

To provide a device of its kind, which can be easily adapted for any kind of building construction.

he saving of labor and expense, and

be saving of waste and spoiled papers by eliminating carrier boys and unnecessary elp around mechanical departments.

To these ends my invention comprises the features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter more particularly described and claimed. Figure 1 is a side elevation of a detail of a carrier-system embodying my improvements; Fig. 2 is another side elevation of a detail in which the parts are illustrated on a larger scale than in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an d View of the construction illustrated in i 1. I n the drawings, A and B indiezi'te the downward flights of pluralities of substanially parallel helical spring wire belts, each plurality being grouped in the manner set forth in my companion application above referred to. The belts constituting each group are arranged with their sides 2 and 3 adjoining and spaced apart, said sides trav- Patented Dec. 41, 1931?. Serial No. 16,613.

cling at substantially the samesurface speed 1n a downward direction as indicated by the naled in suitable frame work 8, said frame work being supported upon the stand 9 as illustrated or other suitable means' belts constituting the flights A and B can be driven by any suitable means, the flight being positively driven by a chain belt 10 passing over a sprocket 11, which is mounted upon the shaft 6 while the method of driving the belts constituting the flight not being illustrated, it being assumed that they are driven from theupper end of the conveyer flight. Positioned below the delivery end of the cooperating flights A and B is a horizontal conveyer table C consisting of side bars 15 pivotally mounted upon a shaft 16 at one end, said shaft being in turn journaled upon brackets such as 17 extending outwardly from the forward sides of the stand 9. Journaled upon the outer ends of the side bars 15 is a shaft 18, which carries a plurality of sheave pulleys 19 suitably spaced apart and in alinement with a plurality of sheave .pulleys 20, which are secured upon the shaft 16. assing around the peripheries of these pulleys l9 and 20 are a plurality of suitably coiled spring wire belts 21, the upper sides of which lie in substantially a horizontal plane, and form a table surface upon which the papers D in folded condition are packed and counted.

succession of papers in overlapping condition are carried downwardly by the conyeyer between the sides 2 and 3 of the downward fli'ghts, and are transferred in a steady procession on to the conveyer table. The turn of this procession of papers from a downward to a substantially horizontal direction is made by a downwardly slanting auxiliaryconveyer E, consisting of a plurality of sheave pulleys 22 mounted and driven by the shaft 6 and a plurality of pulleys 23 mounted upon a shaft 24, all of said pulleys being suitably spaced apart and arranged to receive parallel flexible spring wire belts 25 around their peripheries. The shaft 24 is journaled in an arm 26 of the frame 8 and the upper sides 27 of the belts The 25' slant downwardly and outwardly from sides 21 of the belts on the table C. The auxiliary flight of belts 25 moving forwardly in the direction of the arrows illustrated in Fig. 1 deflect the procession of papers from a direct downwardly into a slanting direction. The shaft 6 carries an eccentric 28, which reciprocates aratchet arm 29, the lower end of said arm engaging the teeth of a ratchet wheel 30 mounted upon the shaft 16, so tl'iatduring every revolution of the shaft 6, the ratchet wheel 30 is stepped forward and the shaft 16 turned, thereby moving the upper sides 21 of the belts on direction of As a result the conveyor belts forming part of the delivery table are moved forwardly at a slower surface speed than that of the conveyer belts constituting the downward flights and the auxiliary rate of speed of the carrier livery table causes the papers packed'in reclining position, convenient to be lifted by the operator from the table in assorted groups, and enabling the carrier table to move substantially continuously in a forward direction.

Located immediately sides 2'7 of the auxiliary belts are a plurality of idle wheels 35 mounted upon the shaft 36, said shaft in turn being mounted in guide grooves 37 on downwardly and inwardly slanting arms '38 constituting part of said frame. The peripheries of these idle Wheels bear down and roll over the surfaces of the papers, as they are being carried downwardly by the upper sides 27 of the auxiliary flights of belts, thus holding the papers down and assisting in causing them to move forward in regular order to be packed on the delivery table. Immediately below the idle wheels 35, which act as guides in the manner stated is my improved counter, consisting as follows:

Mounted upon the guide 54 to be hereinafter described is an impaling element 40 in the form of a bell crank lever pivoted by the pin or bolt 41 upon said arm and provided at the outer end of one of its arms with a point 42 and in the outer end of its adjacent member with a toothed segment 43. The teeth of the toothed segment mesh with the teeth of a sector gear wheel 44 which is journaled on the shaft 24 and carries an operating lever downwardly. The ing lever friction roller 46, which bears downwardly upon the periphery of a of the sheave pulleys 20. The flange 47 has a depression 48 formed in its periphery into which the roller 46 passes during each revolution of the shaft 16. An arm 49 extendbelts on the deto be closely lower end of the operatthe conveyer table n the" the arrows indicated in Fig. 1.

ight. This slower above the upper 45. extending at an incline 45 has journaled thereon an anti flange 47 on one is attached to the lever 45,

the table.

ing downwardly from the guide 54, to be hereinafter described, has attached to it a helical tension spring 50, one end of which thus causing the antifriction roller 46 to follow the periphery of the flange 47 as the pulley 20 having said flange revolves. During every revolution of the pulley impaling element is caused to swing-upwardly and the point of this impaling elehaving said flange the ment being positioned between the carrier wheels 23, so as to engage a rear corner of one of the papers which is being carried by the conveyer, thus holding that paper and causing it to swing corner-wise leaving one of, its forward corners extending from the procession of papers conducted by the conveyerand ma "king off at regular intervals in synchronism with the movement of the conveyer and the press from which the papers are being delivered by the conveyer, predetermined groupsor numbers of papers. Every paper which is offset from the procession of overlapping papers in this manner projects from the pack D which is formed on the table, making it easy'for the operator to select the groups of papers which have been counted and remove them from The number of papers counted can be determined by sions such as 48 and the intervals between them in the periphery of the flange 47. The guide wheels 35 hold the papers down within operative reach of the point, and an auxiliary spring guide arm 52 mounted upon me 54 in the form of a segment of a broad faced 110 pulley mounted rigidly 'uponthe stationary shaft 24, strips the papers from the point. and is formed with an opening 55 through which the point 42 of the impaling element 40 moves upwardly and downwardly. the side of the guide 54 the pivot support 45 for the impaling element'is secured.

The counting and packing mechanism set forth admits of application to various conveye'r structures and while the apparatus 120 shown illustrates one mode of application of the "invention the novel features can be modified and applied in use in various ways within the spirit of the invention.

In accordance with the have described the principles of operation of my invention, together with the appathe number of depreswhich the shaft 18 is jourpatent statutes, I

ratus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that I the construction shown is only illustrative,

and that the invention can be carried out by other means and applied to uses other than those above set forth Within the scope of the following claims. v

Having described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is 1. In combination with a carrier for feeding a procession of papers in evenly overlapping condition, means for movably holding certain members of said procession after said procession has been formed While the papers arrested are turned by the forward movement of said procession until portions of the arrested papers project from said procession.

2. In combination with a carrier for feeding a procession of papers in evenly overlapping condition, a spur point about which a paper is turned by the forward movement of said procession, and means for periodically thrusting said spur against certain papers of said procession and holding said papers impaled thereon while said papers are turned by the forward movement of said procession until portions thereof project from said procession. I

3. In combination with a carrier for feed ing a procession of papers in overlapping forming a pivot condition, a spur associated with said carrier, means for thrusting said spur against and holding certain of said papers of said procession impaled thereon while the forward movement of said procession turns said impaled papers until portions thereof project from said procession and a conveyer table upon which said papers of said procession are collected.

4. In combination with ing a procession of lapping condition, a spur associated with said carrier, means for periodically thrusting said spur against certain of said papers of said procession and impaling said paers thereon while they are turned by the ibrward movement of said procession until portions thereof project from said procession, a com'eyer table upon Which said papers are collected and means for stepping said table to advance said papers in stacked condition from and in synchronism With the forward movement of said carrier.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERICK IV. FULLERTON Witnesses STELLA L. WAsoHENBEReER,

1*. G. BRADBURY.

a carrier for feedpapers in evenly over- 

